


Bruised Skin

by Alasse_Schwarz



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Your bruises/scratches/wounds show up on your soulmate skin AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 06:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17741006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alasse_Schwarz/pseuds/Alasse_Schwarz
Summary: It had become a habit for Lucy to use a lot of make up to cover the blue marks that way too often covered her skin. She was reassured by those marks: they meant that her soulmate was somewhere in the world, still alive. It would have been much worse if no phantom marks ever appeared on her skin.





	Bruised Skin

It had become a habit for Lucy, to use a lot of make up to cover the blue marks that way too often covered her skin. She was reassured by those marks: they meant that her soulmate was somewhere in the world, still alive. It would have been much worse if no phantom marks ever appeared on her skin.

_Like her father skin, his hands were always perfect now that her mother couldn’t hurt herself anymore with the embroidery needle._

Lucy remembered the first time those marks appeared: it had been when she was ten years old, her mother had been ill for a while and when the woman first saw the pale blue flashes on her daughter skin she had smiled.

_That night Layla Heartfilia died._

***

 

Lucky Lucy Heartfilia had left her life behind many months ago, but the habit of covering her phantom bruises had stayed with her after all the years her father had forced her to hide them from his eyes. The girl didn’t know if it was for pain, since he didn’t have a soulmate anymore, or for fear, as it was pretty obvious by the quantity of her blue bruises that her soulmate lived a dangerous life. And that, in the Kingdom of Fiore, could mean only one thing: he or she was a guild mage.

That week, weirdly enough, no new bruises marred her white skin as she strolled down the streets of Hargeon after buying Nicola’s key. Being used to be blue at least six days for week, being able to wear half the make up for a whole week was a nice sensation.

But the more days passed the more her anxieties arose in her heart and mind. _“What if he died? What if he is trapped somewhere, with no one to help him?”_ the girl asked herself more and more often. But there was nothing she could do, she could only pray that he was alright and that no bruises only meant that her soulmate was not fighting any nasty fight.

Then she heard the voices from the plaza and forgot what she was thinking, preferring to go and see what or who was causing such ruckus. It was only after a pink haired boy and his blue cat broke the love spell of the mage that she understood the peril she had run.

 

***

  
  
_If Natsu hadn’t been wearing bands around his wrists that night, Lucy would have seen phantom bruises on his wrists, a copy of the ones she had on her own wrists, gifts of Bora’s men._

  
***

  
  
Being a Fairy Tail mage came with an unexpected package: whenever they went on a mission, no matter how short or simple, they would get into some kind of trouble. Which meant bruises, cuts, abrasions and grime all over them. Lucy noticed that her skin, under her own cuts, was covered of blue bruises, but it wasn’t until coming back from Edolas that she _really_ understood what it meant. Her soulmate was one of her team mates, but their bruises were all so similar after fighting the same enemy that it was impossible to say _who_ he was. Looking at Gray and Natsu that day Lucy decided to not try to understand who of the two man was her soulmate: she needed a family and friends more than she needed a soulmate.

 

***  


It wasn’t until Tenrō island that Lucy saw it: rocks fell on Natsu during their fight against Kain Hikaru and her leg became full of phantom bruises in the middle of the battle. She didn’t think about it until many years later, but that was the moment when she found out.

_Natsu Dragneel, Fire Dragon Slayer, was her soulmate._

She didn’t dwell on it much: Natsu wasn’t the kind of guy who thought about soulmates. He liked to fight, to eat, and his only long-term preoccupation was finding his dragon father again. Not the kind of guy who would take her to romantic dates, propose under her beloved stars or build a life with her.

And yet, when he smiled, she didn’t care at all. She loved him, soulmate or not.

 

***  


When she saw her future self, Lucy almost didn’t recognize herself: she hadn’t seen that dark, tired and sad look on her face in such a long time that she had forgot how her face looked when she had felt so alone, back in the Heartfilia residence. She hadn’t wanted to bring her other self back with them, as she was _scared_ to find out why she was so _alone_. She didn’t want to hear _what_ had happened to make her desperate enough to go back in the past rather to stay with her own comrades, unless that Lucy had no comrades anymore.

_And she sure as hell didn’t want to think of that_.

When the other Lucy saved her from future rogue attack she couldn’t stand it.

_Don’t die. Not here, not in front of their friends. Not in front of_ him.

But the Lucy from the future spired in her arms, with a last request, and Natsu of all people would not turn around from that.

 

If Natsu saw the phantom mark on his chest and understood what it was, what it meant, he never said.

 

***

 

Lucy asked herself again and again if Natsu _knew_ that they were soulmates, but he never said a word about it and never changed his way around her, embarrassing her to no end by joining her in bed or opening her bathroom door when she was bathing.

Couldn’t that guy get a hint?

 

***

 

After the war against Zeref and the Alvarez Empire, life slowly returned to normal. Fairy Tail started to rebuild their guild once again and to go to jobs again. Lucy wanted to go on a mission to find Aquarius Key, but couldn’t find the strength to go without Natsu. And the dragon slayer seemed to stay closer to her than usual these days.

The morning after the prizegiving Lucy woke up to find Natsu and Happy in her home once again.

«What are you two doing here?!» the girl screamed at them, but the duo simply answered: «We had to take you home, yesterday, don’t you remember?».

«Lucy» stated Natsu seriously, while holding her in his arms: «We are going to stay together forever from now on».

_“Forever?”_ thought the girl, looking at him with tears in her eyes.

Then the dragon slayer showed her his right elbow, marked by a pale blue bruise and laughed: «You sure hurt yourself a lot in stupid ways, _Luce_ ».

The girl looked at her own elbow, marred by the exact same bruise, only hers was an angry purple and started crying.

«Let’s go on a mission, Lucy!» said Natsu, taking the girl by her right hand – the one with Fairy Tail’s mark, the one future Lucy had lost against the dragons.

And the girl could only laugh at that: «Yes!»

**Author's Note:**

> This story is partecipaiting to the COW-T (ninth edition): Clash of the Writing Titans with prompt "Soulmate".


End file.
